


The Archangel's Recovery

by We_Are_Legends



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Destiel - Freeform, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pranks, Recovery, Sabriel - Freeform, Trickster Gabriel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 04:12:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7669618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/We_Are_Legends/pseuds/We_Are_Legends
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel is wounded during a hunt and while his grace is healing up, strange things start happening around the Winchesters. Well, stranger than usual that is and that’s saying something. And of course Gabriel is not to be blamed. Why would the trickster ever do something like that??</p>
<p>AKA the time when Gabriel is the biggest drama king ever, Sam is officially done with his mate, Dean is an ass, Cas is not as blank as usual and an innocent civilian is traumatised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Archangel's Recovery

61 years old Larry Berger often prided himself in living a simple, uncomplicated life with deeply rooted ideals in normalcy (as compared to those kids nowadays with all their crap about magic and fantasy). Those who knew him were well aware of his no-nonsense policy and would have therefore been very surprised if they had seen him on that particular morning, screaming in terror at the four men who were emerging from the motel room across his.  

“Abominations!!”, he screeched hauling up the toilet tank, which he had spent hours trying to detach and splashing them with holy water. Having spent a terrifying night locked in his room and researching on how to eliminate such atrocities, to say that Larry was shocked that the holy water was not having the intended effect was quite an understatement. Frantically backing away, he pulled out a silver cross and started chanting, “God in heaven, hear my prayer…”

The shortest demon pulled away from the drenched group and strolled towards him, grinning like a demented being. “Hiya Larry! I see that you’ve heard about our little unnatural and deeply satanic activities last night. How unfortunate! Oh and by the way, your children are great enthusiasts of Pagan worship. Fascinating culture really. I especially enjoy the orgies and-”

However, the poor man had already fainted in terror. But to this day, he swears that he heard one of the demon say, “Seriously Gabe, you really need to stop doing that to everyone we meet on the road”

 

_18 hours earlier_

Initially, Gabriel had laughed at Dean’s colourful panoply of curses when they found out that they were actually hunting witches. The guy had spent his whole life hunting monsters, been to hell and purgatory and despite all that, what he hated the most happened to be human beings who watched too much Charmed when they were kids. Of course, Gabriel did not refrain himself from saying all of that and lazily snapped a finger to vanish the whetstone that Dean threw at him. _Huh, looks like the guy was actually starting to like him, or else he would have thrown the knife itself._

But then some hours later, as he stared at the scorch wounds on his chest, Gabriel thought that maybe Dean was not totally wrong about those bitches. It would have definitely been a better idea to have done more research first before encouraging the boys to run head first into the hunt with only his admittedly awesome archangel’s knowledge.

The hunt had started well enough, with Gabriel blowing down the warehouse’s doors in a show of smoke, producing the obligatory sarcastic one-liner and casually flicking a finger at the hex bags to make them disappear, before letting the humans and the angel charge at the witches. Perhaps had Gabriel not been busy ogling at how Sam’s muscles flexed with his controlled moves and thinking about the hot bath that the latter had promised him later that night, he would have noticed the strange aura of magic that was slowly creeping at him and surrounding his vessel.

When Gabriel realised what was happening, it was already too late as he lost control over his grace and with a defeaning cry, his three pairs of wings burst out in a defensive stance. They were not the wings that the archangel often enveloped his mate after a particularly difficult hunt to shield them from the rest of the world. These wings were those of a warrior, feathers as sharp as steel and meant to unleash the wrath of God. To Gabriel’s shock, his wings appeared to have taken a mind of their own and were preparing themselves to lash out at everyone in the warehouse. He met Sam’s horrified eyes and suddenly realised what he had to do. He was bordering on unconsciousness and knew he had very little time left. For the first time in over a millennia, he prayed to his dad for what he was about to do. Closing his eyes, he gathered the last of his strength and pulled.

 

**~*~**

On the other side of the warehouse, Cas saw the archangel kneeling on the floor, screaming in agony, and he was immediately flooded by an anger that he had rarely experienced before. _How dare they hurt his brother?_ With a snarl, he beheaded the witch with whom he was fighting and turned towards Gabriel, already gathering his grace to help him. However, he stopped short when the archangel opened his eyes and he heard the latter’s voice in his head.

_Wait bro. You need to protect them._

Castiel frowned in confusion and looked at the Winchesters. Dean was still fighting hard, slicing the witches one by one and covering for his brother at the same time, while Sam was running towards Gabriel.

_Trust me brother. Protect them._

Cas had never the archangel sound so serious before. Even in heaven, Gabriel had been a favourite among the fledglings, and it was a common sight to see them following the archangel like ducklings, holding onto his every words and laughing in delight while the latter held them in his arms and taught them how to fly. Even more memorably was the time when Gabriel had been telling Cas and the other younger angels about some prank he had played on Lucifer earlier and had them all in stitches; and at the same time getting one of his bloodied wings healed by Raphael, who was caught between tutting at the archangel’s disregard of his higher status and smiling at the glow in his grace whenever he made the fledglings  laugh.

Of course Cas trusted his brother. How could he not?

With a heavy heart, he turned away from Gabriel and grabbed Sam before the latter could reach his mate, and flew them both towards Dean who was still fighting with all his might. Pulling his wings out, he created a shield for the humans, and barely had time to push both brothers under it before the warehouse erupted in a grace-induced intense light. It took all of Cas’ strength to both maintain the shield up and keep Sam from escaping his hold. He now realised why Gabriel had told him to protect the hunters. His grace would have most certainly burnt their eyes out. He only hoped that his brother was strong enough to protect himself from his own grace.

 

**~*~**

Huddled under Cas’s wings with his brother, Sam could feel waves of terror rolling off him like water. Just before Cas had caught him, his mind had been assaulted by intense feelings of pain and despair. When he turned to look at Gabriel, he had not needed the bond with his mate to know what the latter was feeling. His eyes met those of the archangel and underneath the excruciating pain, all Sam could see was pure love. And like an arrow piercing through the haze in his mind, the words _‘I’m sorry’_.

 

**~*~**

After what appeared to be like hours, Cas finally put his wings away and Sam rushed towards his exhausted mate, who was now spread on the floor, his vessel still smoking slightly. He opened his eyes and weakly smirked at Sam.

“Hey Sambo”, he murmured. “You look a bit under the weather.”

Sam blinked at the tears forming in his eyes and huffed softly. Trust the trickster to find a joke in any situation. He stepped back for Cas to patch up the archangel as best as he could _(Oh cruel world! How the mighty has fallen!- **Stop being such a drama king Gabe** )_, before snapping them back to the motel room.

Gabriel would later explain that it was his bonding with Sam that had stopped him from completely disintegrating, as it was the grace that he had placed in “that gorgeous body” that helped his vessel regenerate at an extraordinary speed. ( _Don’t bother trying to wrap your head around this Deano. My awesomeness goes well beyond the limit of the understanding capacities of your puny mind._ )

Gabriel would never admit that out loud, but he started sympathising with Dean’s hatred for witches. These bitches were definitely terrifying, considering how they had actually done the impossible by creating a curse that could hurt an archangel. As a trickster, Gabriel could enthusiastically get behind that, but as an archangel, he wanted to dethrottle them.

And while Gabriel had been battered, frozen, thrown around, stabbed and even killed, he had never experienced something like that. Lucifer’s killing him had been done in a neat fashion. He had gotten stabbed and everything went dark, causing him to be blissfully unaware of his surroundings until his dad resurrected him ( _YOU SON OF A BITCH WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THIS TIME?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN ON A VACATION?! WE NEEDED YOU IN HEAVEN AND YOU BAILED ON- oh is that a PB Max candy? How did you get that? They stopped making those decades ago._ )

But this…this was torture. Never had Gabriel been forced in his whole life to bed rest. Admittedly, he could barely stand on his feet and was completely depowered, and Cas was definitely right about resting being the best way to heal his grace. But still, he was among the most terrifying weapons of heaven and terrifying weapons of heaven did not have to take bed rests.

“GABRIEL!! STOP THROWING SUCH A TANTRUM AND GET ON THAT DAMN BED.”

The archangel took a look at his angry human and wisely retreated back to the motel’s lumpy bed. Sam looked down at him and narrowed his eyes when Gabriel gave him his best ‘I’m an innocent archangel who loves you very much and who will definitely not move from this bed’ look.

“Cas”, Sam said, not moving his eyes from Gabriel. “Knock him out until he’s recharged again.”

Gabriel made an outraged noise but was cut short when his brother pressed two fingers to his forehead and he was overcome by sleep. The last thing he saw was Sam’s soft eyes before everything went dark.

 

**~*~**

After knocking Gabriel out, Cas disappeared to track down the remaining witches, while the exhausted hunters hung around the motel room with an unconscious archangel on the bed. Slumped on a chair, Dean took a swing at his beer and glanced at his brother who was already asleep, curled around his mate on the bed.

Even though he disapproved of Sam’s psychopathic boyfriend (maybe mostly due to the fact that ever since the latter had joined their ranks, Dean had resigned himself into becoming a victim of Gabriel’s pranks on a daily basis. The worst part in all of this was how utterly hopeless he felt about these pranks, remembering quite well how his last attempt to get back at Gabriel resulted in him sporting a purple moustache for over a week), Dean had to admit that the latter was good for Sam. Lately, his brother has been more open and cheerful that he had ever been in his entire life. But as happy as he was for his brother, he refused to ponder over the feelings of loneliness that he often experienced and which were increasingly getting directed towards a certain blue-eyed angel.

Sighing deeply, Dean burrowed deeper into the chair, knowing full well that they were going to be stuck in that motel room until Gabriel was fully recharged. Cas had already heavily warded the room, warning them that the enemies made by Gabriel over the millennia could take advantage of the latter’s powerlessness to kill him _(“Just exactly how many enemies did you make over the years?”, Sam had asked one day after Gabriel had been tracked down by a huge wolf, sent by Frigg to kill him. “You mean from the pagan side or the winged-bastards side, because their enmity can be quite different you know”, Gabriel replied, grinning as the wolf rolled over its back for a belly rub, its tongue lolling out on one side of its mouth. Sam raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” Gabriel finally looked up and replied, “Well you see, the angels will know that only an archangel’s blade can kill me and the very fact that I’ve got millennia of fighting experience over them will usually deter them from actually trying to do so. But for the pagan side, they believe that basically anything can off me and when that fails, it often mutates into well-elaborated orgies lasting for-” At that point, both Dean and Sam were groaning and wondering what exactly possessed them to ask the trickster such a question._ )

Dean settled himself for what was promising to be a long and very boring wait. He couldn’t have been any more wrong.

**~*~**

Sam rarely felt tired after even after the most difficult hunts. Most of the time when the brothers were back at whatever ratty motel they were spending the night into, Dean would throw himself into bed and immediately fall asleep. On the other hand, Sam would toss around restlessly, the adrenaline still rushing into his veins and his mind reeling around questions of what would have happened had Dean not moved from the bullet’s trajectory at the last moment or whether had they been quick enough, would they have been able to save another victim or not. Sam may have had long years of hunting experience, but these questions still haunted him after every hunt and he wished that he could actually share his brother’s belief that it’s impossible to save everyone. He would stay up for whole nights and while Dean produced his obligatory remarks about him looking like a “knackered wendigo” the next morning, the latter would still press a large coffee in his hand, his eyes betraying his worry.

However, once Gabriel realised what was happening in his human’s giant cranium, he started spending almost every night with Sam, entertaining him with his highly colourful and vivacious stories, taking him to visit exotic places or even spooning him while letting tendrils of grace ease the hunter into a deep and dreamless sleep.

But now, as Sam watched his mate fall into a deep slumber, he felt an unusual feeling of loneliness seep through him. Ever since his bonding with Gabriel, Sam could always feel the latter’s emotions even when he was away and despite Dean’s insistence that he had started suffering from a dissociative identity disorder, Sam took comfort in these shared emotions. However, Sam’s mind was now filled by a thunderous silence, and he curled around his mate, feeling drained by both the hunt and its aftermath.

Having fallen into a restless sleep, Sam had no idea how much time had passed when suddenly, he was awoken by a huge crashing sound inside the motel room. His hunter’s instincts kicked in, and he immediately jumped from the bed into a defensive stance, his gun at the ready. Ever since he was a kid, he had been taught to always be prepared to defend himself because there’s always the possibility of his wards failing against demons, werewolves or other monsters. However, Sam’s hunting education had definitely never covered on how exactly to react to what he was now facing.

Standing in the middle of the room was a large brown donkey, staring at him from enormous eyes. Sam froze, unsure of whether what he was seeing was true or not. The donkey did not appear to be supernatural in any way but experience has taught him otherwise. Still pointing his gun at the animal, Sam glanced around the motel room for his brother but he was nowhere in sight. _What the hell… How could Dean leave the room after all the warnings that Cas had given them?_ But then, Sam felt his blood go cold when he suddenly remembered that Cas had sealed the room from the outside so that nothing could get in to them. _It would be impossible for Dean to leave the room._

Sam looked back at the donkey and his confusion gradually led way to a stunned disbelief. The donkey was staring back at Sam with a pair of disturbingly familiar hazel green eyes. _What the fuck…_

Slowly lowering his gun, Sam took a deep breath and muttered something that he never imagined he would have to say to a donkey.

“Uh Dean?”

Sam could pinpoint the exact moment when the other shoe dropped in. The donkey’s eyes went wide and chaos ensued. Dean gave an ear-splitting bray and went completely berserk on the room while Sam watched him in horror. Finally getting his bearings, Sam weakly called out for Cas, and seconds later, the latter opened the door and entered the room. On seeing the donkey, the angel stopped short on the threshold, staring at it in a startled silence. Had Sam not been stunned himself, he would have realised that it was probably the most expressive emotion that had ever appeared on Cas’ face.

“Dean?”, he asked, his usual uninflected voice tinged with shock. “You look different.”

Sam rolled his eyes and could almost hear Gabriel’s sarcastic reply.

The donkey turned to the angel and launched itself into a wretched braying cacophony that could have been enough to bring animal services to sue them for animal abuse. After a long and pathetic monologue, Dean slumped down on his hind legs and gazed at them miserably.

There was a moment of complete silence where human, angel and donkey were frozen on the spot, before Cas frowned slightly and explained that it was most probably Gabriel’s grace that was tapping from the latter’s imagination and fabricating such a trick. However, he added that it was clearly a sign that his grace was healing quickly so there was nothing to worry about.

The emotional roller coaster that Sam had gone through over the last few hours, finally took its toll and he exploded.

“NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT?!!”, screamed Sam, while Dean started to feel a weird urge to scratch his back on the motel room’s carpet.

“MY BROTHER IS A FUCKING ASS AND MY MATE IS HURT AND YOU’RE TELLING ME THERE’S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT?!”

“Sam, calm down”, intoned Cas in a gravelly voice. “My brother’s grace is simply reacting to his imagination. It will all stop when he regains full control of his vessel.”

Sam immediately became quiet and a weird expression appeared on his face. Glancing apprehensively at Gabriel’s still figure on the bed, Sam slowly said, “Wait, when you say that it’s his mind that his grace is tapping into, does that include his se-”

But Sam was interrupted when there was a faint pop, and he suddenly found himself dressed in only tight leather shorts with rivulets of melted chocolate running down his chest. With a yelp, he snatched up the bed covers and wrapped it around him flushing brightly, while Cas tilted his head in confusion and Dean finally gave in to the itch to scratch his back and was now rolling on the carpet.

Had any of them been paying attention, they would have realised that their 61 years old motel room neighbour was standing in the hallway, frozen in horror at what he had witnessed through the gap of their room’s open door. 

**~*~**

Larry Berger was a man who had spent his entire life living under a strict code of ethics and discipline. In fact, the very first thing he did upon arriving at a hotel was to lecture the sleepy teenager at the reception on his inefficient bookkeeping _. How could anyone employ such insubordinate people?_ When he entered his motel room, he surveyed the faded blue bedsheets with distaste, and immediately pulled them from the bed, before arranging his own Egyptian cotton bedding sets, muttering under his breath about incompetents everywhere. Larry Berger was the type of person with a hard-headed policy and never hesitated to make his opinions known.

So that evening, when the residents in the room across from his started a racket, he did not think twice before storming out to give them a piece of his mind. As he strode towards the room, he faltered on seeing the door slightly open. He peered inside the room but what he witnessed on that particular evening was enough to send him for two years in therapy, an additional year of rehabilitation and a lifelong fear of donkeys.

**~*~**

After some embarrassing minutes where Sam hastily pulled on clothes, Cas sat down and looked thoughtfully at Dean who was staring back at him.

_Looks like their staring matches still holds on even when one of them is an ass_ , Sam thought, rolling his eyes at them.

Cas finally broke out of his silence and said, “You know, if my brother can no longer control his grace, it can have disastrous repercussions.”

Sam straightened up and frowned slightly, “What do you mean?”

Cas started pacing the room. “Gabriel always thought of Dean as being an ass so his grace has tapped into his imagination and turned him into one. Your clothing mishap is clearly a product of his sexual fantasies. What if his grace starts reacting to his darker thoughts?”

Sam’s mind immediately went back to Gabriel’s stories of sacrifices and cannibalism that he witnessed from the most corrupt pagan gods.

“Is there anything we can do about this?”, Sam asked worried, while Dean got busy trying to sort out his four limbs.

Cas turned to him and replied, “There may be a way but it will be risky. Your bond with my brother can allow me to send you in his mind and you can ask him if he can stop any of this. But his grace is still unstable and I don’t know what will happen if-”

“Do it”, Sam interrupted firmly as he stood up. “It’s our only chance to stop all of this.”

Dean gave a mournful bray when three of his limbs got tangled up and Cas instantly appeared to make up his mind. He approached Sam and pressed two fingers to his temple.

Immediately, Sam felt himself transported into a vortex of colours and sounds, and when he landed back on his feet, it took him a couple of seconds to regain his bearings. He opened his eyes and found himself assaulted by a wide panoply of contradicting sights, merging into each other. On his left, he saw a 16th century bourgeois décor, consisting of silk tapestry and oak furniture. Merged in it was the most beautiful garden that he had ever seen. _The garden of Eden_ , his mind helpfully supplied and Sam gaped. So that was what his mate’s mind actually looked like.

“Not exactly”, a familiar voice chimed in from behind him and Sam immediately whirled around.

There, on a sandy beach was Gabriel, wearing bright pink swimming trunks and sprawled on a beach recliner. He raised a cocktail glass at his stunned mate and grinned.

“Gabriel”, Sam breathed out and threw himself at him. “Hey Samshine”, Gabriel replied, easily catching his mate and pulling him down on his lap.

“How are you feeling? Is your grace alright?”, Sam asked worried, looking down at him for any sign of distress.

“Don’t worry about it.”, Gabriel replied lounging back and pulling Sam along with him. “My grace is healing up just fine. Just a few more minutes and I’ll be ready to go again.”

Sam slumped down in relief and suddenly remembered what exactly had brought him here. “Wait, but your grace is acting up on its own and has turned Dean into-”

Sam stopped short at the mischievous smirk that had appeared on Gabriel’s face.

“Gabriel,” Sam said slowly, “Please tell me that you were not doing that on purpose.”

The archangel’s smirk grew bigger and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Sam sat down straight and stared down the archangel.

“Let me get this straight-”

“That will be as straight as you’ll ever get”, quipped Gabriel grinning, before again bringing out his best ‘I’m an innocent archangel who loves you very much’ face.

Sam continued, levelling an unimpressed glare at the archangel.

“You were aware of what was happening this whole time and you kept screwing with us?”

“Maybe”, Gabriel mumbled, looking at him from under his eyelashes. “But then it was so boring here. And I figured out that perhaps it would help take our brothers’ heads out of their asses, so that they would finally go at it like rabbits.”

Sam looked at his mate thoughtfully and then smirked.

“So, what else were you planning?” Sam asked and Gabriel laughed.

“I knew there was a reason why you are my favourite.”

**~*~**

Back at the motel room, it had already been half an hour since Sam was gone and Dean was starting to get restless. Having figured out how to use his four limbs, he was pacing the motel room up and down, his tail swishing nervously, and occasionally glancing at Sam’s and Gabriel’s innate figures while Cas watched him closely. _What the hell was taking his brother so long?_

“Dean”, Cas said in his gravelly voice. “Don’t worry. Our brothers are bonded. I’m certain they’re both fine.”

Dean gave a small whimper and settled down next to the angel. He had never felt so miserable in his life. His brother was gone and there was an itch behind his ears that was bugging him like hell. As if reading his mind, the angel cautiously raised a hand and scratched his head, and Dean immediately melted. Cas gave a small smile at how easily the hunter hardened by hell, became putty in his hand, and was making some very unholy sounds of ecstasy.

Suddenly, a faint pop resounded inside the motel room and Cas found a very naked and human Dean straddling his lap. The angel blinked in confusion at the hunter’s face where a weird expression was slowly replacing the initial surprise of no longer having a tail and four legs. Dean appeared to be battling inside his mind but finally muttering a _fuck this_ , he grabbed the blue-eyed angel by his collar and kissed him hard. Cas took a second to realise what exactly was happening before he pulled Dean closer and transformed the kiss into a deep languid one.

It’s of course that exact moment that Sam and Gabriel woke up, with the latter throwing his hands in the air and exclaiming “Fucking finally!”

Dean gave an undignified yelp and fell to the ground in a heap, before remembering that he was naked and immediately hid behind his angel.

Gabriel rolled his eyes and said, “Deano, I can assure you that the one that your brother’s got is more impressive and possesses my undivided admiration. And besides”, he added smirking, “I think Cas would get jealous!”

Gabriel gave a delighted laugh at his mate’s embarrassment, while Dean was reduced to a stammering mess behind Cas, who looked from the archangel to the hunters, and wondered how exactly he had become part of such a dysfunctional family.

 

**The End**

 

**Author's Note:**

> Loved it? Hated it? Tell me in the comments below :)
> 
> And don't forget to come and chat on Tumblr: http://we-are-living-legends.tumblr.com/
> 
> This chapter was unbetaed so forgive me for any typos that went unnoticed.


End file.
